Lena Dunham reveals she had a hysterectomy in endometriosis battle

Lena Dunham has talked extensively about her struggle with endometriosis, and now the former “Girls” star has revealed she underwent a hysterectomy to try and end her pain.

In an essay in the March issue of Vogue titled “The Painful Truth,” Dunham wrote that she has “never had a single doubt about having children.”

“As a child, I would stuff my shirt with a pile of hot laundry and march around the living room beaming,” she wrote. “Later, wearing a prosthetic belly for my television show, I stroke it subconsciously with such natural ease that my best friend has to tell me I am creeping her out.”

Yet as much as she yearns for the experience, Dunham said she also had to face her health challenges.

“I can feel it, deeply specific yet unverified, despite so many tests and so much medical dialogue,” the actress wrote. “I just sense that the uterus I have been given is defective.”

“In addition to endometrial disease, an odd hump-like protrusion, and a septum running down the middle, I have retrograde bleeding, a.k.a. my period running in reverse so that my stomach is full of blood.” Dunham wrote. “My ovary has settled in on the muscles around the sacral nerves in my back that allow us to walk.”

“Let’s please not even talk about my uterine lining,” she added. “The only beautiful detail is that the organ — which is meant to be shaped like a light bulb — was shaped like a heart.”

It’s been months since her procedure, and Dunham said she has not given up on the idea of motherhood.

“I may have felt choiceless before, but I know I have choices now,” she wrote. “Soon I’ll start exploring whether my ovaries, which remain someplace inside me in that vast cavern of organs and scar tissue, have eggs. Adoption is a thrilling truth I’ll pursue with all my might.”